Opinion: Joe Biden update: Stalked by a mystery man?
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Amazing that this story has been missed by so many other media outlets. But we noticed in a series of photos of Vice President Joe Biden during a recent walk in Washington that he is being followed by an unidentified mystery man.
Do you recognize him? Neither do we.
In this top photo the unidentified man quietly fell in behind Biden as the VP passed a parked car.
Biden is so busy talking with a throng of one photographer covering his walk that it appears he does not notice the man, who also has a receding hairline.
In this next photo (below) the mystery man closes in on the jaywalking vice president, apparently attempting to listen in on any conversations. Note the coiled radio wire running out of the mystery man’s left ear so he can communicate with co-conspirators ....
Biden, clearly oblivious to the closing threat, continues to chat with members of an unseen crowd of onlooking fans.
But here (right) the mystery man appears fearful that he may, in fact, have been spotted.
He increases his pace and attempts to hide behind the tall train rider from Delaware.
Biden, in turn, continues talking and also waving to no one in particular, seemingly unaware of the closing threat.
But then apparently, Biden becomes suddenly suspicious that he may be under surveillance.
The Democrat heads for a predesignated safe zone.
Biden ducks quickly through a nearby alley.
He emerges on another street (see photo below), confident that the canny maneuver from his Senate days dodging reporters has lost his tail ....
But not.
The vice president celebrates shaking off his tracker with the secret thumbs-up sign (right), unaware the man has sidled up behind him to eavesdrop on any strategic sidewalk small talk.
The mystery man’s eyes seem focused like lasers on the vice president’s left hand, loosely clutching hundreds of pages of Top Secret documents or Sudoku puzzles for the tedious train ride to Wilmington.
Suddenly, with the alacrity of a 70-year-old, so fast that it eludes capture even by the camera’s lightning-quick shutter, Biden whirls around to confront his clandestine stalker.
What Biden sees shocks him.
The mystery man has disappeared, seemingly vanished into thin air -- or what passes for thin air in the Washington Metro area.
The stalker has, however, assumed the notorious ninja shrubbery disguise.
Look carefully over the vice president’s shoulder in the photo below.
You can just make out the shape of what appears to the uninformed eye to be a bush ....
You would think in this day and age the Secret Service would be alert to any such conceivable threat to our nation’s most voluble leaders.
But we are indebted to the hard work and courage of Getty photographer Alex Wong, who captured these dramatic moments just outside the White House this week.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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